29 January 2014

Alexa Chung. She has the most gorgeous hair, a sense of style that would make Carrie Bradshaw jealous and flawless skin. When I grow up, I want to be her, if only that were possible! She is not only the image of perfection but to add to her wide list of achievements; she has dated Alex Turner, she is best friends with super trendy Daisy Lowe, and has graced the cover of Vogue three times. If you're not extremely jealous of her by now, you should be.

Alexa's fashion choices hold inspiration for the young, quirky and everyone in between.

I don't know which is more gorgeous, the backdrop of this photo, or Alexa.

One of my favourite things about Alexa Chung is her laid back style of hair and makeup, she makes a messy bun or a curly bob look so effortless and easy, and still looks picture perfect. Alexa normally keeps her everyday makeup very simple, with a slick of foundation, a dab of blush and obviously a swift flick of a liquid eyeliner. She is known for her trademark cat eye look and has even brought out a liquid liner for Eyeko which just confirms she knows her stuff. Alexa has always had her famous brown hair either shoulder length or shorter, and she has always looked incredible. Over the years she has stayed loyal to her one signature style of hair, normally keeping it wavy and sometimes rocking a bed head, however she has had many different colours of brown and experimented with ombre.

I could go on for hours complimenting Alexa but unfortunately, there is a limited amount of times I can rephrase my love for her school girl meets grandma style.

28 January 2014

I must confess I do not spend a awful lot of money on blush and to be quite honest I could probably live without blush as long I owned a good bronzer. One of the two blushes I own is a lovely blush called Harmony which is by Mac, it is a lovely muted brown toned matte and is absolutely amazing at contouring.

I am quite pale (NC15) and I used to think my skin only suited brown toned blushes as I had tried a very very pink blush on my cheeks and the end result made me look like a china doll, because of the contrast between the present pink tones in the blush and the paleness of my skin.. but then I met Mocha by Mac, (which when bought, pushed my blush collection up to two!) and my opinion of pink hued blushes changed for the better.

This is a swatch of mocha under the flash, it looks like it has a hint of shimmer on this photo, but I can promise you that it is completely matte.

One of the things I love about Mocha is it's colour payoff, it leaves my skin looking natural and not too flushed, which a lot of pink blushes often do. It is matte, so it does not leave my cheeks looking too unnatural which is good for those days where you don't want to look too made up and I find that it blends wonderfully.
I do believe that you pay for quality, and Mac is on the expensive side but the blushes sold by Mac are of a high quality. I've had my Harmony blush, which set me back £18, for about a year and after religious use, I still haven't hit pan which is astounding! A little really does go a long way, and I only really use a little bit of blush every day so it isn't a surprise that I still have plenty of product left. Mocha, which was also £18, is applied on my cheeks every day and it basically looks brand new.

A swatch of 'Mocha' without the flash. It is a lovely matte.

If you are looking for a really nice matte shade for your cheeks, I would recommend popping along to your local mac store and browsing their blush selection! I hope you are led to love matte blushes such as Mocha as much as I do.

27 January 2014

Recently, I have developed a love for reading.
This love affair started when I decide to read 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green, which is an amazing book and a book that made me cry for about an hour non stop.This book made me appreciate literature and about a week after I finished it I thought "I want to read another book". I have literally drilled into my friends how amazing the Fault in Our Stars is and they read the book and loved it as much as I did! I then read Will Grayson, Will Grayson - which is another book written by the writer/wizard that is John Green. I loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson but I was still so attached to the characters in Fault in the Stars. I needed another book asap.
Then.. I discovered The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins! Before reading the book, I had seen the Hunger Games film and the Catching Fire film, which I thought were absolutely fabulous, mainly because of Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss (MAJOR GIRL CRUSH ALERT).

Just look at her!

I had been wanting to read the books for quite a while so I decided that I would put my Christmas money to good use and buy the first book in the trilogy.. 'The Hunger Games'. I went to Waterstones and picked up a copy and instantly knew I had made a good decision.At New Year, I went to a cottage in Cumbria for a couple of days in a little seaside village called Allonby, which was lovely and quaint but very very very quiet. When I say quiet I mean no 3g (which was a nightmare), only emergency calls and the dreaded - no wifi. This meant that my only form of entertainment during the day was reading or watching TV or going on a walk with my family. I thought this would be a good time to start reading my new book.
So it started, and in a matter of chapters I got to know Katniss Everdeen and her hometown, District 12. I was very surprised because of how different the book was to the film! For example, in the film, Greasy Sae gives Katniss the mocking jay pin whereas in the book the pin is given to Katniss by Madge, the mayor's daughter when she comes to say goodbye to her before they leave for the Capitol. I loved how the story was set in a dystopian era and I thought Suzanne Collins' idea's for the story were very complex and put together; I read in an article on line that she was inspired by the Greek story of the minotaur (which I love!) and I also read that she was watching a documentary about a war and then flipped over to a reality show, and this is where she got the idea for the story. The hunger games is basically based on the concept of a reality show vs a epic bloodbath.
The book follows the story of Katniss, who is faced with the ultimate decision to sacrifice herself for her country's name when her sister, Prim, has her name called in the annual reaping of victors for the Hunger Games. The book is set in a place called Panem, which is basically thought of as modern day North America. Panem is a completely fictional country that is divided up of 13 districts, and each district has a role in Panem's industry. District 12, where Katniss lives, is the district that specialises in Coal Mining.
For those who have not read the book, I will not say anything else to destroy the story but I absolutely loved the book and it was a very thought provoking story. When I finished the Hunger Games, which was after about 2 days, I logged straight onto amazon and ordered Catching Fire and Mockingjay!